Kenyans hope ICC opens window to justice

14 September 2011 by Judie Kaberia

As the first three of the ‘Ocampo six’ soldiered on through the tough, painstaking and crucial journey of defending themselves against allegations of crimes against humanity last week, many Kenyans have high hopes that the International Criminal Court (ICC) process has opened a window of delivering justice for the 2008 post-election violence.

There are those who feel the ICC will not offer any solution to the violence that left about 1,300 people dead, 350,000 others displaced and property worth millions of shillings destroyed.

Despite these variations, there is a lot of interest in the proceedings as most Kenyans remain glued to their TV sets to monitor the confirmation of charges hearings that started on September 1 for MPs William Ruto, Henry Kosgey and Radio personality Joshua arap Sang.

Most of the main TV stations in Kenya have altered their normal programming to relay live coverage of the proceedings at The Hague.

PEV victims

Gregory (not his real name) a victim of the violence who is now living in Kisumu after he was displaced from Eldoret says the proceedings at The Hague remind Kenyans of the prevailing ethnic strife in 2008.

Related articles

One year ago on January 6, 2006, the 17 members of Morocco's Equity and Reconciliation Commission (IER) were closing up shop after submitting their final report to King Mohammed VI. The Moroccan truth commission had received a flood of compliments from the international community praising the recommendations in its report, especially those advocating legislative and constitutional reforms. One year later, however, the results have been rather mixed.

After having tried high-ranking officers, ministers, businessmen, priests, journalists, local officials and militiamen, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) is in uncharted waters. On September 11, the most famous rwandese troubadour of his generation will stand trial for genocide.

China is keeping a polite distance from international criminal justice. Beijing is hardly disinterested, but China does want to make sure that these new global mechanisms are not going to infringe upon its sovereignty by delving into particularly sensitive cases such as Tibet.

Over the last month, Burundi has hit the headlines as the president put himself forward to be elected for a controversial third term, resulting in street protests, thousands of refugees who fled instability and an attempted coup. Behind the issues of elections and constitutionalism are also those of justice following Burundi’s long-running civil war. The international community supported an intensive process of negotiation and the signing of the Arusha Accord in 2000. But in the decade and a half since, its provisions on justice have been debated though never fully implemented.

France's attitude towards international criminal justice is marked by ambiguity. Paris subscribes to a vision of the world in which international humanitarian law is considered a way to curb violence against civilian populations, but at the same time it is wary of an unchecked judicial system that could end up prosecuting French soldiers engaged in areas where it has old and deep-rooted interests.